Harvey: Heatles show Rockets what success can look like

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Paul McCartney will be in Houston on Wednesday night. The Heatles were here Monday night.

I like the Rockets’ chances against McCartney.

I was pretty sure they would have a hard day’s night against the Miami Heat. I was also pretty sure it wouldn’t matter to the capacity crowd of 18,041 at Toyota Center.

I was wrong on both counts. The Rockets didn’t beat the Heat, losing 113-110, but they kept the fans on their feet, hearts pounding, voices thundering and hopes alive, until the final seconds.

Top that, Sir Paul.
It took a king to top the Rockets on this night. Omer Asik bested his career high in points by five, scoring 19, and also had 14 rebounds. Chandler Parsons scored 25, James Harden 22, Patrick Patterson 17.
Jeremy Lin, although he finished with a mere nine points, had his high moments, although one of them wasn’t the airball on an open 3-point shot with 8.2 seconds left.

“We looked like we had a big four tonight,’’ Patterson said.

The Heat has the Big Four every night in LeBron James, Dwyane Wade, Chris Bosh and Ray Allen. But make no mistake: It was James, King James, who won this one for the Heat. He scored 38 points, including 16 in the fourth quarter — three out of three on 3s but with the final lead-changing basket coming on a textbook drive-the-baseline layup.

“LeBron was obviously very, very good going down the stretch,’’ Miami coach Erick Spoelstra said.

It was the Rockets’ second sellout in four home games this season, the first since an opening-night crowd that came to see “A New Age’’ begin with Harden, Lin and Co. You knew many Monday night came to see the NBA’s new champion.

That appeared to include the Rockets for the first seven minutes, when they seemed content to watch while the Heat rushed out to a 22-5 lead.

The second-loudest ovation up to that point had been for a James alley-oop dunk on a pass from Wade.

Fan favorites
The loudest ovation had been for the Texans’ Andre Johnson and Arian Foster when they were introduced to the crowd, as if anyone could miss them on the giant overhead screen.

But while the Rockets won’t pretend to replace the Texans as No. 1 in Houston’s heart, they made it clear over the next two hours they are not merely pretenders.

The Harden-Lin combination is eye-catching on the new billboards around the city. You might have seen them Monday.

“BeardSanity.’’

“Houston, The Beard Has Landed.’’

“Houston, We Have a Beard.’’

There were, however, still questions about how the combination would work on the court. The Rockets went into the game with a 3-3 record, but two of the victories were against winless Detroit. Also, Lin hadn’t earned his place as Harden’s equal in anything other than jersey sales.

Maybe a 3-pointer to win a game would have helped. Instead, he came up with nothing but air.

“Obviously, it’s my responsibility to hit that shot,’’ Lin said. “It was a good shot for me, a quality shot, and it didn’t go in for me today, unfortunately, in a crucial play of the game.’’

Maybe it will be nothing but net next time. Meantime, others besides Harden stepped up like they had only in short periods of time before.

“We’re not the team with the most talent, and we’re not the team with all the big names,’’ Patterson said. “But we’re seeing some positives.’’

Rockets management isn’t under any illusions. They know fans won’t continue to follow them because of a slogan, billboards or even a beard.

“We’re happy to play with that beard,’’ said Scott Andrews, the team’s chief strategy officer. “It’s good to have a face of the franchise. He fits that bill quite well.’’

Building a brand
But he and Ken Sheirr, the senior director of marketing operations, added in an interview before the game that they agree with Rockets general manager Daryl Morey that Harden is a “foundational player,’’ one to build the rest of the team around, not one to carry the team into contention.

“Most Rockets fans like this fresh, new approach,’’ Sheirr said. “We’ve had some players who could keep us in the middle, but we’re trying to develop a championship team — the short road be damned.’’

It’s a long and winding road to where the Rockets want to go. It will seem shorter with games like Monday night’s.